Abstract
Combining freshwater consumption and wastewater emissions into a unified analysis framework and utilizing the epsilon-based measure (EBM) model with the characteristics of radial model and non-radial model, this paper evaluates green water use efficiency (GWUE) of 11 provincial-regions in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) and investigates its spatiotemporal differences during the period 2005-2014, on basis of which the contribution rate of each input-specific green water use inefficiency in the overall green water use efficiency and the potential of freshwater-saving and wastewater emissions reduction are also calculated. The Theil index is used to explore the sources of the provincial gap of green water use inefficiency, and a random-effect panel Tobit model is applied to test the impact of the influencing factors of green water use inefficiency in the YREB. It is found that green water use inefficiency of the YREB is relatively low and regional differences is significant during the sample period, indicating a large potential of water-saving and water pollution reduction, and narrowing BGAP and WGAP of the Upstream is the key for improving green water use inefficiency in the YREB. The panel Tobit regression results show that economic development, technological innovation, water use structure, water resources endowment, environmental regulation and regional differences all play positive/negative effects on green water use inefficiency in the YREB, while these factors' influencing direction, degree and significance are significantly different. The conclusions of our study can provide considerably valuable information for the YREB to reserve water resources and reduce wastewater emissions.
Highlights
The Yangtze River is China’s largest river, the third largest river in the world, flowing through nine provinces and two municipalities of China
In order to overcome the above shortcomings remaining in the existing studies, we carry out water use efficiency evaluation by applying a novel data envelopment analysis (DEA) approach—epsilon-based measure (EBM) model considering wastewater emissions in our analysis
One contribution of this study is to explore the sources of green water use inefficiency in the Yangtze River Economic Belt (YREB) by decomposing the overall green water use inefficiency into various input-specific components by the EBM model
Summary
The Yangtze River is China’s largest river, the third largest river in the world, flowing through nine provinces and two municipalities of China. Hu et al [28] utilized a super efficiency DEA to evaluate the water use and wastewater treatment efficiency of 10 cities in the Minjiang River Basin of China In these studies, the economic outputs as well as negative externalities generated (e.g. wastewater emissions) during water use activity are well considered. In order to overcome the above shortcomings remaining in the existing studies, we carry out water use efficiency evaluation by applying a novel DEA approach—epsilon-based measure (EBM) model considering wastewater emissions in our analysis. Major contributions of this study can be summarized as follows It combines the EBM model and window-based DEA approach to evaluate and decompose provincial green water use efficiency in the YREB.
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
